Today marks 64 years of India’s Independence and to mark the occasion, here are some amazing tracks from the album ‘Vande Mataram: An Electronic Exploration‘ … a fabulous take on the original by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay.

This time from Bandish Projekt (a.k.a. Mayur Narvekar) and Shaa’ir – from Shaa’ir & Func (a.k.a. Monica Dogra) joined Bobby Friction in the BBC Friction Lab to record a remixed track LIVE, in less than 2 hours!

The result was ’50 Ways to Leave and Come Back’ – a live mash up of 3 tracks.

Yesterday, I finally got around to watching Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat – a beautiful film that steps away from the average stuff churned out by Indian cinema and sets a trend of its own.

Set around Mumbai’s Dhobi Ghat, the story pursues four very different people whose lives coincide. Arun (Aamir Khan), an introvert artist trying to move on with his life; Shayi (Monica Dogra), an NRI investment banker on sabbatical in India; Munna (Prateik) an aspiring actor who by day is a Dhobi and by night a rat killer. And finally Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra), a newly-wed in Mumbai who keeps a video diary for her younger brother.

Argentine musician Gustavo Santaolalla provides a stunning background score and soundtrack to the fit in with the commotion of the film, haunting and emotive!

The reason for mentioning this film on nada:brahma is that I’m a massive fan of Monica’s band – Shaa’ir + Func. I met up and had a chat with her when they performed at Sound Bar in Birmingham, truly fab! – read the gig review here.